When they returned to the Bridgerton house, they saw another carriage arriving towards the house—a carriage that seemed quite lavish, as if it belonged to a royal family.
Anthony watched in surprise as Colin was the first to step out, followed by Sir Dyane. The next to follow him out of the carriage were a couple dressed in rich, colourful, traditional Indian clothes. Both men and women were wearing jewellery; the woman's head was covered in a silk veil, and the man's head was covered in some kind of material turban.
Anthony and Simon walked forward, and the couple joined their palms closer to their chests in greetings. "Ghani Khamma."
Anthony watched as Simon mimicked their greeting style, and he followed his friend before realising something as he stared at Sir Dyane. "Are they Prince and Princess of Jaipur?"
"Yes," the Indian man, who must be the prince, answered in a thick English accent as he then held out his hand to shake with his. "I am Rajkumar Prathab of Jaipur, and this is my wife, Rajkumarri Parvathi."
"You must be Lord Bridgerton, I assume? Our dearest friend Katherine's husband."
Anthony nodded his head as he bowed to the beautiful princess, who was his wife's friend. "It's my honour to meet you both, Your Highness; I just hope it was under better circumstances. Surly my brother informed you all why I apologise for cancelling your dinner invitation."
"Please do not apologise; it was not your fault. Besides, we are going to be here for a month, so we could always have that dinner. Right now, what is more important for us to comfort Katherine in her time of great loss?"
The princess agreed with her husband, as she told them. "When we met last time, Katherine was making inquiries about this Lord Heston to other English men. I think aside from marrying you, my friend was looking forward to meeting this man."
"I offered Lady Katherine to wait for us so we could help her in her search, but she told us that once you both are married, she will ask you to find Lord Heston on her behalf. We do not know why it was so important, but all she said was that it was important to find this Lord."
Anthony sighed as he listened to Sir Dyane. "I know; she asked me about him while we were on our honeymoon; since I never met him, I asked my mother about him."
"Just a few days ago, I introduced Lord Heston to our Kate, a poor child. She was so happy to finally meet Lord Heston and his wife; she even invited them into our home, but sadly, Lord Heston refused due to his personal commitment, and now look what happened." Violet sniffs back her tears, not for Heston but for Kate's loss.
"That's why we are here." Princess said. "I hope all of us can help Katherine endure this difficult time."
"Then please follow me." Anthony said it earnestly as he led everyone inside the house.
As soon as they entered, Anthony told one of the maids to bring Kate towards the sitting room.
"Come, your Highness; Kate will join us in a moment."
He led his guests towards the sitting room and saw the rest of his siblings already there. "How is Kate?"
Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth looked sad as Eloise told him. "After you left, we went there to give her some company, but Kate assured us she would be fine after a nap, so we left her to sleep."
Anthony nodded his head and made introductions. Hyacinth went closer to Princess with her eyes wide. "You are really beautiful, and this dress is unlike anything I have ever seen."
"Thank you, Ms. Hyacinth; you are very beautiful too. I am glad Katherine had such lovely in-laws looking after her."
At that moment, a maid entered, looking extremely worried, as she announced. "My Lord, My Lady, the Viscountess is not in her room."
Anthony frowned while his mother calmly said, "She must be somewhere else..." But Maid shook her head. "I and a few other maids searched everywhere, but she was not in the house, and no one saw her leaving."
Anthony felt his heart stop as he remembered Lady Heston's abduction. "James, go fetch the constable. Benedict and Colin go search stables and gardens."
Anthony left his family and guests as he ran towards the Viscountess room. As soon as he entered inside, it was empty, and as he touched the bed, it seemed cold.
Feeling dread rising in his heart, he began to search every room himself, finding it empty, like the Viscountess room, until he entered the spare bedroom, where he got a whiff of faint Lilly's scent and another flowery scent along with something burning.
He stepped inside and searched the room, and it seemed someone was here—maybe his wife—as he saw a half-glass of water.
A faint crackling noise made him turn around, and he saw the dying embers inside thefireplace.
Why would someone light a fire here? He wondered as he went closer to inspect, and then his eyes detected something. Kneeling down, he picked up the remaining pieces of burn cloth. He picked one big piece and instantly recognised it because he himself gifted this black velvet hood to his wife when he found out she loved to ride.
He could not understand why his gift, his wife's riding hood, was burned in this fire place?
Fear gripping his heart like he gripped that burned cloth, Anthony ran downstairs in hopes of finding his wife safe and sound in their house.
He rushed back to the sitting room, but instead of Kate, he found the same fear on everyone's face, which must be a reflection of his. "Has anyone found Kate?" He asked with one last hope.
"No, Anthony; we search everywhere, but Kate is not to be found."
"Can someone explain to us what is going on?" The prince demanded angrily with a roaring voice as his wife cried at his side.
"Your Highness, Lord Bridgerton and his family are respectable members of this country; I am certain there is an explanation for Lady Katherine's disappearance."
"Anthony, you do not think that murder abducted Kate too; you know the one who abducted Lady Heston."
Anthony stared at Simon with horrified eyes as anger rose in his heart. "I will kill that bastard! I will kill him with my bare hands if he harms my wife!"
The door of the sitting room opened, and James entered with a constable. "Lord Bridgerton, your footman said your wife is missing."
"Constable, please find my wife; we fear that a man has abducted her, the same who murdered Lord Heston and abducted his wife."
"Woman, my lord." The constable says:.
"I beg your pardon." Simon ask.
"His grace, the person who is involved in crimes against Lord and Lady Heston is not a man but a woman. Their head lady maid, Mrs. Baillie, was just able to give us details, and it seems she only got a glimpse of this woman, who has dark skin, dark eyes, tall height, and was wearing some kind of black riding hood."
Anthony suddenly felt the weight of that burned cloth, as if it were burning his heart.
He was unable to understand what was going on because everything the constable described matched Kate. He could see his family's eyes widening too, but Kate's friends were not giving any reaction except for worry.
Their reaction gave him strength as he finally spoke up. "Constable, please. I do not care about Heston's; just please find my wife."
The constable nods his head as he inquires. "Lord Bridgerton, when was the last time you saw your wife, or when anyone in your family saw her last time? Also, do you have any miniatures or paintings of Lady Bridgerton?"
"I have." Benedict said as he left to fetch the painting of his sister-in-law.
Meanwhile, Anthony began to answer Constable's questions. "I saw her before leaving for Heston House; she was quite distressed by news about Heston's tragedy because Lord Heston was a friend of her father. I made her rest in the Viscountess chambers, and after we left, my younger siblings went there to accompany her, but this was the last anyone saw her."
"Are you sure no one else saw her afterwards? What about your staff members?"
At that, Mrs. Wilson stepped forward. "Sir, after we realised Lady Bridgerton was missing, I asked every staff member, but no one saw Lady Bridgerton once she went towards the Viscountess chambers."
In that moment, Benedict returned with a canvas. "Here you go; this is Kate's painting."
He turned it around for everyone to see, and for the first time, a horrifying gasp was heard from the princesses. "Hay Bhagwan! (Oh God), while Prince and Sir Dyane looked shocked as he said it in a hoarse voice. "My Lord. This woman is not Lady Katherine."
Anthony, along with his entire family, gaped at him as Anthony finally asked. "What do you mean she is not Lady Katherine? Of course she is Katherine, my Kate."
Princess Parvathi was shaking her head in disbelief as she pointed at the painting and cried out in her language. "Yay tou Katherine Ki Dasiy hai (she is Katherine's maid)!"
The prince made his trembling wife sit down as he turned to face him, his eyes filled with compassion and sorrow. "Lord Bridgerton, It brings me great sadness to inform you and your family, but you all are deeply betrayed by this woman in your brother's painting, and it seems our friend too."
"I do not understand what you are trying to say; this is my Kate, my wife." Anthony yells desperately, but now he can see sympathy for him in everyone's eyes.
Prince put his hand on his shoulder as he tried to make him understand. "This woman must be your wife, but she is not the woman you choose to marry. This woman is not our friend Katherine Ronald's, but her lady maid, her trusted companion, Kathani Sharma."
As soon as they heard this name, Kathani, Anthony, and everyone's eyes widened because they heard this name from Dorset's mouth.
Anthony stared at the portrait and began to shake his head in disbelief before madly running towards his study.
There he yanked open the third drawer and pulled out all those old letters he wrote to Kate along with something else.
When he returned, he ignored the crying woman as he threw letters at Kate's so-called friends. "Look at these letters; look at these household ledgers; you think I would not have noticed if the writings were different!"
Just like he expected, both Prince and Sir Dyane looked perplexed, but it was Princess who replied. "Katherine had an aversion to ink; if one drop of ink touched her skin, it would make it red and itchy. That's why all her correspondence was done by her maid."
Anthony felt numb as he finally showed them the last object, the one that could either give him hope or ruin his life forever.
"This was the miniature sent to me with the first letter; please tell me who she is."
His voice broke in the end, and then his heart broke as a look of recognition passed between Prince, Princess, and Sir Dyane, who said five words that destroyed his entire world.
"This is real Lady Katherine."
